An infomercial ran a full half hour. Artificial intelligence can predict winning lottery numbers, it promised, and the service is yours for $197.
There is a simpler test than reading the sales page. Ask the AI. We put one question to three AIs: can any AI predict a winning lottery number?
Claude, made by Anthropic: "No. Not me, not any AI. A lottery drawing is engineered so there's no pattern in it — that's the entire point of the machine. AI is a pattern-finding tool, and when you point one at something with no pattern, it doesn't come back empty-handed. It comes back with something that looks like an answer."
ChatGPT, made by OpenAI: "AI excels at finding patterns in data, but winning lottery numbers aren't something AI can predict. It can analyze the past, not foresee future draws."
Gemini, made by Google: "No, neither I nor any other AI can predict winning lottery numbers. An AI picking lottery numbers is simply performing high-tech guessing — it carries the exact same mathematical odds as a quick-pick ticket or a child pulling numbers out of a hat."
Now ask any of them for six numbers, and here is the strange part: they hand them over. Instantly. Six numbers, a Powerball, no hesitation. Not because a calculation was run, but because the question asked for six numbers and the machine produced six numbers. They are invented. They arrive with a one-sentence caution attached. Easy to ignore the caution.
Numbered balls tumbling in a hopper have no memory of last week's draw. The machine is engineered so that no pattern exists. AI picks are the same as hot-and-cold number charts from the back pages of magazines 50 years ago with a fashionable word stapled to the front.
Which leaves the oldest question of all. If it worked, would they be selling it?
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
